The following is an excerpt from a 2011 article by Marsha Freeman, entitled Roosevelt’s TVA: The Development Program that Transformed a Region and Inspired the World. It is published with her permission. The full article can be found here. Electricity for All The first challenge facing the Tennessee Valley Authority […]
By Anton Chaitkin The following is an excerpt from a longer article, published in 2012, on the industrial progress of the United States which Andrew Jackson acted to destroy. It describes the collaboration between the Bank, state and local governments, the military, and President John Quincy Adams during his term […]
March 20, 2018–Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal model is still relevant today, Rep. Marcy Kaptur recognizes with her 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps Act (H.R. 2206). Read about a part of that model below. March 18, 1933 began the second phase of FDR’s “Hundred Days” program, the one devoted explicitly to […]
Jan. 16, 2018–It is inconceivable that the American System of Hamilton and Washington could have come into being without the role of elder statesman Benjamin Franklin. We celebrated Ben’s birthday on January 17; he was born in 1706 in Boston, and died in 1790. Franklin represents everything unique and positive […]
By Pamela Lowry On December 1, 1936, Franklin Roosevelt gave the keynote address at the opening of a major pan-American conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The world situation was grim, with fascism already in power in Italy and Germany, and threatening to take over Spain, through the conflict known […]
Nov. 8, 2017—Despite the significant measures which President Roosevelt had taken during his first six months in office, he was well aware that it was not enough to prevent horrible privation during the upcoming winter months. So, on Nov. 8, 1933 President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order establishing the Civil […]
The following was written in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but the lessons apply today with the mega-disaster of Hurricane Harvey. by Stuart Rosenblatt Among the more brilliant accomplishments of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the creation of a mobile workforce that could be […]
by Pam Lowry In the spring of 1935, it was obvious to President Roosevelt that more measures would have to be taken to put Americans back to work. The Civilian Conservation Corps was providing work and income for young men and for a large group of veterans, and the large-scale […]
By Pam Lowry “We must get up early, for we have a large territory; we have to cut down the forests, dig canals, and make railroads all over the country.” (A West Point cadet to a foreign visitor, 1854.) All the military guests at the glittering banquet in the […]
By Nancy Spannaus May 25, 2019—Rand Scholet, founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness (AHA) Society, gave an insightful presentation on Hamilton’s 25-year military career at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia yesterday. More chairs had to be brought it to accommodate the crowd, which grew to more than […]
By Nancy Spannaus May 20, 2019–George Washington’s “Grand Idea” of uniting the country through developing the Potomac River as the gateway to the West, was the subject of a lively book talk last night. Author Joel Achenbach spoke to a group of approximately 30 people about his book The Grand […]
FDR’s Hundred Days, 85th Anniversary: Profound Crises Require Real Leadership
Book Review by John Ascher Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America, Adam Cohen Penguin Press, 2009, 372 pp. April 21, 2018–Outstanding amongst the more recent portrayals of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “100 Days” is the account in Nothing to Fear, the […]